U.S. Navy Firepower in the Strait of Hormuz, and Why Trump Should Lift His Jones Act Waiver (From The John Batchelor Show)

John Batchelor: I welcome Gordon Chang, and we’re very pleased to speak to our colleague Rebecca Grant, Vice President of the Lexington institute. Iran says the Strait of Hormuz is shut. Is that accurate?  Highlights below, and full audio clip here.

Rebecca Grant:  No.  Even the UN says, in a notice to Mariners: The Strait of Hormuz is open.  There are active mine clearance operations underway, and watch out there’s one mine over here, and here’s the lat long [coordinates].  But the Strait is open.  Iran has no tactical control of the Strait.   This is thanks partly to Operation Epic Fury, and then just some very quiet, intensive work by U.S. Central Command and the U.S. Navy to carry out mine clearance operations and get the Omani-side channels open.  The Strait is open: over 60 ships moved through that Strait over the weekend of June 20.

Gordon Chang: Rebecca, the U.S. Navy is still on station at the Strait of Hormuz, along that line south of the Strait.  Is it going to be difficult for the U.S. Navy to maintain that presence for long?

Rebecca Grant:  They are still there, and destroyers like USS Delbert Black have been out since January.  She left her home port in Florida way back in that time frame.  You know, I have no doubt the U.S. Navy can keep this up as long as they need to.  They can return to blockading if it calls for it.  But make no mistake.  This is a tremendous effort.  What you’ve got is, of course, the two aircraft carriers in the North Arabian Gulf, destroyers, other ships like the Littoral Combat Ships that have the mine counter measures packages.  Then you’ve got, literally, Apache helicopters that are armed to go after drones, that are patrolling the Strait, and they’re also to able go after fast boats as necessary.  F-16s, F/A-18s, carrier-based air, the land-based air, you name it. Nobody went home from Central Command, and I don’t think anybody will, until that 60-day countdown is ended.   Then we’ll either see an agreement with Iran, or we may see more U.S. Navy operations.

John Batchelor: I believe it was Reuters that revealed that there was a smugglers’ route being used by the U.S. Navy and tankers coming out of the Gulf, and of the Strait.  That was not much advertised early in the conflict, but certainly is now, and I think the Apache helicopter that was taken down by Iranian fire was participating in that smugglers’ route.  I think it’s on the western shore of the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. Navy is participating.

Rebecca Grant: Exactly right.  The U.S. Navy has control of the Strait, and that narrow passage. They have control of the sea lanes around it and up through the Gulf, and of course, we have air dominance over that region as well.  And you’re right about the Apache helicopters.  As for the smuggler’s route, how romantic of Reuters.  It’s really the traffic separation scheme that runs by Oman. It’s kind of like a big inbound/outbound lane, each about two miles wide, and there is another little route that goes even closer to that western coast, as you talked about.  But what we’re wanting to see is the big ships, the VLCCs carrying crude, the bulkers, the container ships actually moving through the regular traffic separation scheme, because you’ve got northbound and southbound traffic you gotta get through there.  The problem is the international shippers, they work on very tight time schedules, they are extremely risk averse, the crews are unarmed for the most part, and it’s going to take some time to get this traffic flowing.  So, President Trump needs to do everything he can to signal confidence in this waterway.  Frankly, I think he ought to lift his Jones Act waiver.  That that would be a good signal to the international mariners that the crisis is over.

John Batchelor: What is the Jones Act?

Rebecca Grant: The Jones Act protects coastwise trade for U.S.-only ships.  Got to be U.S. owned, flagged and crewed, and they do things like run fuel from Louisiana into Florida and other supply routes.   Under the waiver, foreign crews could participate in that, but only about 100 ships have done so.  Although, Gordon, about one-quarter of those turned out to be Chinese-connected.  So, we normally just waive it for a little while during a hurricane, but this waiver has been in place for coming up on 90 days.  I think it’s a bad signal at this point.  We want to protect that for US ships only. That’s the way forward for innovation and restoring American shipbuilding. So it’s really time to cancel that waiver, partly to signal to the international shippers that we think everything is good in the Strait of Hormuz and we’re not going to see that clog in the gasoline delivery system.

Gordon Chang: Rebecca, when we go back a year or so ago, people were talking about how the U.S. Navy had let its mine clearing operations abilities atrophy. How’s that going now?

Rebecca Grant: As as it turns out we’ve got great mine clearance abilities; fewer ships, but it’s done now with underwater and surface autonomous vessels, and with helicopters that use a sort of an aerial pod.  It’s all about detecting, locating the mine, and then neutralizing them when necessary. But most of that has now shifted to sea drones which are an increasingly important part of the U.S. Navy.